CHICAGO – “Solo: A Star Wars Story” is one intergalactic space adventure that sadly never makes the jump to light speed. The end result Is not awful, it’s not great, it’s just kinda okay… it slavishly attends to the beats hinted at in the original trilogy without offering much in the way of surprises, or freshness.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

The film gives Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) an origin story that doesn’t differ much from what fanatics might have already conjured up in their fan fiction. Ehrenreich is no Harrison Ford, but he’s not terrible either. His Solo starts as a petty thief, working for the first in a long string of slimy gangster creatures on his home planet, a grimy mud pit called Corellia. He and a fellow thief Qira (Emilia Clarke) hatch a plan to double cross the gangster, steal a valuable hyperspace fuel and make their escape. When things go wrong he gets out and she doesn’t, so he improvises and joins the Empire Air Corps to learn to be a pilot.

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CHICAGO – It is Chicago where New York City native Harry Wood is debuting his first play, entitled “Roast,” through The Comrades theater company at the Greenhouse Theater Center. The comic drama, about a gathering of stand up comics and relatives to “roast” – rather than eulogize – a deceased fellow comedian, is a World Premiere that runs through August 18th, 2019. For tickets and more information, click here.

CHICAGO – Kokandy Productions is one of the best in Chicago doing musicals, and scores again with “Head Over Heels,” through August 25th, 2019, at Theater Wit. For more details and tickets, click here.